Wire-tightener.



Patented Sept. l9, |899.

L. H. CLYBORNE. WIRE TIGHTENER.

(Application filed Jan. 26 1899.)

(No Model.)

//v VENTOR A77'0BNEYS.

WITNESSES:

UNITED STATLS PATENT Ounce.

LOUIS HENRY CLYB'ORNE, OF MOUND CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA.

WIRE-TIG HTE'N' ER.

' SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 633,425, dated September 19, 1899.

Application filed January 26, 1899. Serial No. 703,477. (No model To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LoUIs HENRY OLY- BORNE, of Mound City, in the county of Campbell and State of South Dakota, have invented a new and Improved Wire-Tightener, of which the followingis afull, clear, and exact description.

The purpose of this invention is to provide a device by which one may easily and effectively tighten the slack wires of a fence or like structure; and to this end the invention embodies a holder adapted removably to carry a twisting-bar, having near one end two bits capable of gripping the wire and having at the other end a hook serving to engage the wire when the wire has been twisted around the bits, thus holding the bar in place on the wire and retaining the wire in taut condition, it being my intention to supply a plurality of bars with each holder.

This specification is the disclosure of one form of my invention, while the claims define the actual scope thereof.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a plan view of the invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section thereof, and Fig. 3 is a cross-section on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1.

The body 4 of the device consist-s, preferably, of an elongated solid structure of hard wood having at each end a transverse handgrip 5, held thereto by a tie-bolt 6. Formed in the face of the body 4 opposite the face to which the hand-grips 5 are attached is a longitudinally-elongated cavity 7 overhanging one end of which is a plate 8, rigidly fastened to the body 4, and a hook or look 9 is adapted to swing over the other end of the plate, the free end of the lock being slotted and engaging with a pin 10, fast to the body 4.

The twisting-bar 11, which may be made of malleable cast-iron or cast-steel, is trapezoidal in cross-section, as indicated in Fig. 3, and is adapted removably to lie within the cavity 7, the side walls of which are undercut, so as to match with the sloping sides of the bar 11, and thus as the bar is pushed sidewise to assist in holding the bar in place. One end of the bar has a hole 11 therein, as

shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The bar may be placed in and displaced from the cavity 7 by endwise movement of the bar, one end thereof extending under the plate 8. The hook or look 9 when in the position shown in "Fig. 1 lies over the bar to hold it in place, and when it is desired to remove the bar the hook may be swung outward and the end of the bar adjacent to the hook firstraised to clear the body 4, after which the bar may be slid (rightward in Figs. 1 and 2) to disengage the plate 8. Fast to the end of the bar 11, which end is adjacent to the plate 8, are the bits 12, which extend transversely to the bar and are provided with .heads 14 at their outer ends. These bits are adapted to engage the wire, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1, and then by turning the bar the wire may be wound 'around the bits and the slack of the'wire taken up. Fast to the end of the bar 11, opposite the bits 12, is an outrunning hook 15, which when the wire has been sufficiently tightened may be engaged with the wire, so as to hold the bar on the wire, and consequently retain the wire at the proper tension.

In using the device the parts are assembled as in Figs. 1 and 2, and the device is manipulated through the medium of the handgrasps 5. The wire to be tightened is introduced between the bits 12 and the entire tool turned until the wire has been rendered sufficiently taut. The hook 15 may then be engaged with the wire and the lock 9 swung back, so that the body 4 may be taken off the bar 11. An additional bar may now be inserted in the cavity 7 and the instrument used again in the manner described.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. The combination of a body portion having an elongated cavity therein, a plate secured to the body portion and overhanging one end of the .cavity, a releasable lock carried by the body adjacent to the other end of the cavity, a twisting-bar removably held in the cavity by the plate and lock, bits secured to the twisting-bar and adapted to have the wire wound around them, and a hook carried by the twisting-bar and adapted to engage the wire to hold the bar on the Wire.

2. The combination of a body portion having an elongate cavity therein, a plate s'enlinating short of the endsthereof, means at cured to the body portion and overhanging one end of the cavity, a releasable look carried on the body portion at the other end of 5 the cavity, the plate and lock serving to hold the twisting-bar within the cavity, and handgrips attached to the ends of the body portion.

3. A wire-tightening device having an elongate body portion with an elongate cavity 10 formed in the middle portion thereof and tereach end of the body portion for permitting the same to be grasped, and means carried by the body portion at the cavity for removably holding a twisting-bar in place.

LOUIS HENRY OLYBORNE.

Witnesses:

T. E. HALLETT, LooKE PERFITT. 

